Review: My Fat Dad by Dawn Lerman

When you think back to childhood, can you remember some of the ads and slogans you grew up knowing as well as your own name? Although I wasn't the most culturally aware child (and am a less culturally aware adult), if I hear some of the jingles from my childhood, I can still tell you immediately what product they were selling.  Of course I had then, and still have, few ideas of the people or person behind any of these catchy and memory sparking time capsules. Dawn Lerman introduces readers to her dad, the man behind some of the most recognizable of these ads, and his major impact on her life in her memoir, My Fat Dad.

Lerman's dad was a big man. 450 pounds big at his heaviest. The gain and loss of his weight and the diets he tried, coupled with his very successful advertising career and all it required of him, gave form to much of her childhood. Her mother's emotional distance and her maternal grandmother Beauty's warmth and love of cooking were the other huge factors in Lerman's life. In this memoir, she shares what it was like to grow up with a father whose weight dictated the rest of the family's consumption and a grandmother whose cooking was a manifestation of her love. The book is almost like a series of chronologically ordered essays about Lerman's growing up years. She lovingly describes learning to cook under Beauty's tutelage. She lays bare the unhappy family dynamics of a workaholic father, a significantly less than maternal mother, and a talented younger sister. There is at best indifference and at worst neglect towards Lerman and extreme self-centeredness from her parents. Interestingly, despite this, Lerman's love for her father in particular shines through her writing. And this love remains even as she chronicles the toll her parents' divorce took on her and the terrible way in which she was so very alone after it.

Each chapter closes with recipes that Lerman mentions within the text. Many of them come from her grandmother, some from her early attempts to help her father on his many diets, and some from her own adult life as a specialist in nutrition and health. The stories that Lerman has chosen to tell are incredibly sad. Her family's focus on appearance, both physically and in terms of keeping up with appearances for those outside the family, leaves readers feeling pity for the often unconsidered child she was and neither of her parents come across as particularly sympathetic. Lerman was not only physically hungry most of her childhood and teen years but she was emotionally hungry as well. Each chapter builds on this hunger, showcasing the myriad little unkindnesses of her life and chipping away incrementally at the reader's feelings of decency and understanding towards her parents until there's nothing left. The dialogue within the memoir is stilted, unnatural, and too formal sounding with a disconcerting lack of contractions and other hallmarks of casual verbal communication. I really wanted to love this memoir, wanted to be drawn in by her creative dad and her warm grandmother, wanted to be inspired to try the recipes, wanted to celebrate love and family, but in the end, I just found myself feeling sad. The book is a fast read and those less bothered by the dysfunction will probably appreciate it more than I did.

Review: The Girl From the Paradise Ballroom by Alison Love

If you wanted to escape something, what would it be? Would it be your native country and the lack of opportunities there? Would it be the stultifying, unpromising ordinariness of your life? Would it be conventional society? Each of the major characters in Alison Love's novel, The Girl From the Paradise Ballroom, is trying to escape something and make a better, more suitable life for themselves in this historical tale of love and loss just as the world goes crazy heading into war.

Opening in 1940 with the arrest of Antonio Trombetta, the novel quickly moves back in time to 1937 to the root of the troubles that precipitated his arrest. Antonio is the oldest son of an Italian immigrant family. He's married and has a baby on the way. He works at his family's kiosk during the day and sings at clubs at night. His younger brother, father, and even his young wife are all intrigued by Fascism and support the rise of Mussolini from afar and to varying degrees. Antonio just wants to be able to work hard to make a better life for his family without having to declare an allegiance to a political belief he does not hold.

Olivia Johnson is a dancer at one of the clubs Antonio sings at one night and he is inexplicably drawn to her as he watches her dance. When he comes across her in a vulnerable moment, the two of them are bonded by that moment and the knowledge of it forever. The next time he sees her, several months later, Olivia has met and married Bernard, a wealthy patron of the arts who takes the talented Antonio under his wing as a protegee. As Olivia and Antonio are thrown together, they form a sort of friendship rife with undercurrents of more. But as they each try to invent themselves as they want to be, World War II is heating up. Britain starts rounding up enemy aliens to send them to internment camps and everyone waits to see which side of the war Mussolini will choose to align Italy with and how that will affect Italian immigrants like Antonio.

Capturing the steeply rising prejudice of the British against Italians, the continued disparities of class, and the question of selfhood in marriage, Love has taken a different tack from many WWII novels. Both Antonio and Olivia are outsiders in their respective worlds. He has no wish to declare a political affiliation or for repatriation to Italy, unlike so many others in his community. She comes from a middling upbringing that prepares her in no way for the upper crust life into which she marries. And husband Bernard, after the initial joy in her inferior beginnings and difference from the women of his own class, wants her to conform to that which he was rebelling against, wants her to change into a woman she never was. They are not the only outsiders in the narrative though. Filomena, Antonio's sister, is walking out with a British police officer, falling in love with him, as he is with her, a situation that would scandalize the community if it was known. This outsider status is isolating in so many ways and none of these characters has the luxury of confiding the whole of their hearts to anyone else. The reader is privy to all of their hearts though, through the rotating narration. Interestingly, even seeing the events from multiple perspectives, the love story between Antonio and Olivia doesn't quite come together as something wonderful, fated, and inescapably romantic. Rather it seems a shared refuge from loneliness and the unhappiness of the lives they are leading. Although the novel is set during the war and all of the characters live in London, the actual reality of the war is quite distant until Antonio is arrested. As a story, it was indeed sad; so many of the characters in it were trying to escape to something happier and yet they didn't achieve all they hoped for. So beware the ending that tries to rectify too much. But those people who enjoy historical novels, especially stories that shine a light on a lesser known bit of history like this one does on the lives of Italians in London at the time, will find their curiousity piqued here. Ultimately, the dual pulls of love and loyalty, to family, to country, and to self, make this a poignant and interesting read.

For more information about Alison Love, take a look at her publisher's author page or follow her on Twitter. Check out the book's Good Reads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Lisa from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.

At the Edge of Summer by Jessica Brockmole. The book is being released by Knopf on May 17, 2016.

Amazon says this about the book: Luc Crépet is accustomed to his mother’s bringing wounded creatures to their idyllic château in the French countryside, where healing comes naturally amid the lush wildflowers and crumbling stone walls. Yet his maman’s newest project is the most surprising: a fifteen-year-old Scottish girl grieving over her parents’ fate. A curious child with an artistic soul, Claire Ross finds solace in her connection to Luc, and she in turn inspires him in ways he never thought possible. Then, just as suddenly as Claire arrives, she is gone, whisked away by her grandfather to the farthest reaches of the globe. Devastated by her departure, Luc begins to write letters to Claire—and, even as she moves from Portugal to Africa and beyond, the memory of the summer they shared keeps her grounded.

Years later, in the wake of World War I, Clare, now an artist, returns to France to help create facial prostheses for wounded soldiers. One of the wary veterans who comes to the studio seems familiar, and as his mask takes shape beneath her fingers, she recognizes Luc. But is this soldier, made bitter by battle and betrayal, still the same boy who once wrote her wistful letters from Paris? After war and so many years apart, can Clare and Luc recapture how they felt at the edge of that long-ago summer?

Bringing to life two unforgettable characters and the rich historical period they inhabit, Jessica Brockmole shows how love and forgiveness can redeem us.

Review: Father's Day by Simon Van Booy

Several years ago, I read Simon Van Booy's novel, The Illusion of Separateness. It was a profoundly moving novel of interconnected vignettes and I was anxious to see what Van Booy would do in a more traditional novel. He is still a beautiful writer but his newest novel, Father's Day, didn't quite have the same luminous feel that the previous one did. This novel is different in so many ways and while I loved the other one more, it was still a worthwhile reading experience.

Harvey is just six years old when her parents die in a car accident. The only family she has left to her is her Uncle Jason, a man she's never met, a man her mother never acknowledged, a man who her father spoke of rarely although protectively. Jason is not the sort of man you'd think of to raise an orphaned child. He is an ex-con, sent to prison for fighting and blinding another man. He is disabled, having lost a leg in a motorcycle accident, and unemployed, surviving by selling things online. He's building a custom motorcycle in his garage whenever he can find the money to buy parts. And he struggles with the demons of his easily provoked rage often. There's not really any space in his life for a niece he's never met. Yet Wanda, the social worker assigned to Harvey's case, sees beneath the obvious disqualifications to the very heart of him and is determined to place Harvey in his care.

The story alternates between the past and the present, starting with Harvey's life before the accident that left her orphaned and then flipping to present day Paris, where she has a wonderful creative job and is preparing for her father to come and visit her. She has discovered something she wants to confront him about. Her preparations and their visit together are interleaved with the story of her childhood and growing up years. There are also glimpses of the terrible childhood that Jason and her father lived as well. The reader watches as Jason learns to be a father, sees him determined to control his impulsive anger, to allow the caring portion of himself not destroyed by his own father's abuse to come to the fore in loving this child, and finally in cherishing her as a father does.  The flipping back and forth in time serves the story but can be awkward in execution, making for an uneven narrative tension. Jason's character is uneducated but his language drifts in and out of sounding that way, making it a bit inconsistent in voice.  And the ending is too tidy and predictable.  But the plain and rooted caring between this reluctant father and the daughter he inherits is touching and lovely and those who enjoy simple, unadorned stories of created families will appreciate this emotionally loaded and heart warming tale of family, unconditional love, and belonging.

For more information about Simon Van Booy, take a look at his website, like him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter. Check out the book's Good Reads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours for prompting me to take this off my shelf and read it.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

Alice in Bed by Judith Hooper
A Scandalous Proposal by Kasey Michaels
Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea
The Iceberg by Marion Coutts
Father's Day by Simon Van Booy
The Girl From the Paradise Ballroom by Alison Love

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
West With the Night by Beryl Markham

Reviews posted this week:

Alice in Bed by Judith Hooper
A Scandalous Proposal by Kasey Michaels

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

My Fat Dad by Dawn Lerman
The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman
My Confection by Lisa Kotin
Put a Ring on It by Beth Kendrick
One Perfect Summer by Paige Toon
The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley
Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
American Housewife by Helen Ellis
The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton
Closer All the Time by Jim Nichols
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Forsaken by Ross Howell Jr.
The Cosmopolitans by Sarah Schulman
The Spice Box Letters by Eve Makis
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
A Very Special Year by Thomas Montasser
Specimen by Irina Kovalyova
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Telling by Zoe Zolbrod
The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera
The Boy Who Speaks in Numbers by Mike Masilamani
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick
What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas
After the Dam by Amy Hassinger
Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
Umami by Laia Jufresa
The Education of a Poker Player by James McManus
Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea
The Iceberg by Marion Coutts
Father's Day by Simon Van Booy
The Girl From the Paradise Ballroom by Alison Love

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

The House of Hawthorne by Erika Robuck came from New American Library.

Newly out in paperback, I reviewed it in hardcover here.

Wrong Highway by Wendy Gordon came from Shepherdess Books and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

An appearances can be deceiving book about a woman whose life looks settled and perfect until she takes on her rebellious nephew and sends her own life and that of her whole family off the expected course, this looks like quite a ride.

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Review: A Scandalous Proposal by Kasey Michaels

Sometimes a witty, happy diversion is just what you need in your reading life. That it would come, as most romances do, with a guaranteed happily ever after is icing on the cake. Kasey Michaels' newest Regency-set historical novel, A Scandalous Proposal, the first in The Little Season set of books, is just such an entertaining delight.

Cooper Townsend is known as the hero of Quatre Bras and although no one is quite certain exactly what that means and rumors abound, everyone in London society knows that he was given a title, lands, and an income by the Prince Regent for his heroic actions. Even without the particulars, these three gifts are enough to make him the target of matchmaking mamas and their daughters and the toast of the town. But Coop's getting more than a little tired of all the adulation and flirting, wanting nothing more than to fade into obscurity. It appears that someone is very invested in not letting this happen though as short chapbooks telling of his supposed exploits are being published anonymously, adding to his acclaim. Then a blackmail note threatening a final chapbook, exposing his actions and the truth behind them, which no one is supposed to know, arrives and Coop has to get serious about stopping this threat. At the same time, Dany Foster's sister, the Duchess of Cockermouth, also receives a note from a blackmailer, threatening to expose her ill-advised correspondence with a man not her husband. Dany wants to help her sister, deciding that Marietta needs a hero to help her recover the silly but incriminating notes and eliminate the threat of exposure. So it is fortuitous indeed when she literally bumps into Coop in the street. Intrigued by the red-haired, forthright young woman, Coop is drawn to help Dany help her sister, despite his own misgivings. When Dany and Coop join forces, they discover that they are both working against the same blackmailer and that they look forward to their collaboration much more than they should given the stakes they are facing.

The entire course of the novel takes place over a very brief space of time and yet this shortened timeline doesn't seem to make it feel frantic or accelerated (although perhaps it should, at least to some extent). Despite that, this is a romping, madcap sort of novel. Coop and Dany fall in love with an indecent sort of haste but they don't have time for some silly misunderstanding to keep them apart or to break their sham engagement. Instead, the reader is treated to glee-filled banter and a growing appreciation for the happiness they feel in each others' company. In a nice change of pace, the mystery of who the blackmailer is gives the novel its narrative tension. The scandals are only scandalous in the context of the story's time so it's not hard to retain the good feelings both Dany and Coop inspire in the reader. That they can actually work together without manufactured strife is also a breath of fresh air. The novel is fun and frothy, perfect for Regency fans who appreciate a slightly different twist on their favorite stories.

For more information about Kasey Michaels, take a look at her website or like her on Facebook. Check out the book's Good Reads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Lisa from TLC Book Tours.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.

Fading Starlight by Kathryn Cushman. The book is being released by Bethany House on May 3, 2016.

Amazon says this about the book: Lauren Summers is hiding. Her fashion house internship should have launched her career, but a red carpet accident has left her blackballed. The only job she finds is unpaid, but comes with free lodging--a run-down cottage in the shadow of a cliff-side mansion. Unsure of what comes next, she's surprised to be contacted by a reporter researching a reclusive former Hollywood ingénue who lives in the nearby mansion.

Kendall Joiner wants Lauren's help uncovering the old woman's secrets. In return, she'll prove the red carpet accident was a publicity stunt so Lauren can regain her former job. With all her dreams in front of her, Lauren's tempted by the offer, but as she and the old woman get to know each other, Lauren realizes nothing is quite as it seems.

Review: Alice in Bed by Judith Hooper

The youngest of five, the only daughter at a time when a woman's role was confined to the domestic sphere, and ailing or invalid much of her life, Alice James is not the James family member that history celebrates and reveres. That honor goes to her better known brothers, William and Henry. But she was a formidable intellect herself, often acknowledged by these famous brothers as the wit of the family. When her diaries were posthumously published, they received wonderful reviews for their thoughtful stance on social issues, her educated yet accessible style, and her incisive insights. Not bad for a woman overshadowed by her brothers by dint of her sex, her constitution, and social conventions. Judith Hooper's novel, Alice in Bed, imagines this witty, smart, unconventional woman, bringing her to life and examining not only her later years, spent entirely inside in bed, but also her life growing up with a famous father and then even more famous brothers.

Opening with Alice confined to her rooms, unable to walk, having frequent "going off" spells, and suffering from a feeling of snakes in the pit of her stomach, the novel moves back and forth from her long term sick bed to her younger years and back again. Via Alice's own narration, the reader feels the unhappiness and disappointment when she is denied the same sorts of freedoms and education that her brothers receive, even as it is clear that Alice idolizes William and Henry. When she does get a boon that she has envied from afar, like going to Europe, it has conditions and strictures that it never had for her brothers. Alice chafes at the bonds of womanhood but she is generally dutiful, even as she rails privately that no one understands her. Only in her choice of love does she embrace the unconventional,  that choice remaining mostly secret. Outwardly compliant, Alice is actually rebellious at her core and when sparks of her rebellion bubble to the surface, it alarms her family, but it animates the story. Between her bouts of illness, Alice is quite funny and perceptive. Her poking fun at the pomposity of those around her, mainly those of the Boston elite literati, is sly and on target. Her understanding of social conventions is fascinating to read as she seems oblivious to the effect of her own forthrightness. She is an opinionated and brilliant woman indeed although she is no Angel in the House.

Hooper intersperses snippets from James family letters and excerpts from Alice's own diary into the novel, allowing the real Alice James to blend with her fictional counterpart and to highlight different members of the family's feelings and concerns about her well being and prospects. The author shows the toll that physical and mental illness took on the family as a whole, with Alice not the only chronic sufferer. And she captures the high-toned, interesting, debates between and differing beliefs of family members, especially Alice, on social issues like women's rights and the plight of the poor. Although Alice's outside experiences eventually ceased during her many years of mysterious, undiagnosed illness, she never gave up her curiousity or interest in the world outside her door. The novel is well written and thoughtful, almost entirely character driven. The pacing is slow and deliberate. The cast of characters is not large, as Alice's own world was not large and in fact grew smaller by the year. Readers with an interest in American literature, Boston in the mid to late 1800s, or in the frustrations of such a constrained life for an intelligent woman of the time period will find this an intriguing read.

For more information about Judith Hooper, take a look at her website or follow her on Twitter.. Check out the book's Good Reads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Lisa from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

Umami by Laia Jufresa
Rare Objects by Kathleen Tessaro
The Rivals of Versailles by Sally Christie
The Education of a Poker Player by James McManus

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea
Alice in Bed by Judith Hooper

Reviews posted this week:

Rare Objects by Kathleen Tessaro
The Rivals of Versailles by Sally Christie

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

My Fat Dad by Dawn Lerman
The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman
My Confection by Lisa Kotin
Put a Ring on It by Beth Kendrick
One Perfect Summer by Paige Toon
The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley
Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
American Housewife by Helen Ellis
The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton
Closer All the Time by Jim Nichols
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Forsaken by Ross Howell Jr.
The Cosmopolitans by Sarah Schulman
The Spice Box Letters by Eve Makis
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
A Very Special Year by Thomas Montasser
Specimen by Irina Kovalyova
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Telling by Zoe Zolbrod
The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera
The Boy Who Speaks in Numbers by Mike Masilamani
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick
What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas
After the Dam by Amy Hassinger
Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
Umami by Laia Jufresa
The Education of a Poker Player by James McManus

Review: The Rivals of Versailles by Sally Christie

Some things in life extract a high price. When a gypsy fortuneteller predicts that young, beautiful Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, a girl of the bourgeois and of no particular family, will one day be the King's mistress, the entire trajectory of her life changes and she is from that day forward groomed for the foretold position. She is lovingly called Reinette, married off to a man who will not stand in her way, and her reputation is carefully preserved until the day that Marie-Anne Mailly-Nesle, the King's favorite, is dead of a fever.  Then Jeanne is put forward as the newest bauble for Louis' bed. While she falls in love with her handsome and demanding sovereign, her elevation in life will cost her much in lost innocence, goodness, and kindness.

In this second book of the trilogy after The Sisters of Versailles, in The Rivals of Versailles Sally Christie has again delved into the viper's pit that was Louis XV's court to tell a compelling story. Jeanne Poisson, the first middle class mistress to ever become the official favorite, is better known to history as the Marquise de Pompadour, one of the most powerful women of her time. Jeanne's transformation from fresh and innocent in her love for the king to the elegant and astute woman it was dangerous to make an enemy of is carefully drawn in these pages. As she is transformed from a simple girl of non-noble birth into a force to be reckoned with and the most important person in Louis' court, she abandons her wish for everyone to like her and grows guarded and self-contained. Her early years with Louis as his mistress are fraught enough but when her health becomes too poor for her to share his bed any longer, she must find another way to stay in his favor and not lose the power and position she has worked so hard to attain. It is really when she has become no more than a platonic friend, mother-figure, and political adviser to Louis that her intelligence and savvy shine.

A woman who started as a pawn to be placed in the King's bed by his advisers becomes the grand master herself, orchestrating the rise and fall of those in the King's inner circle and even those who followed her in his bed. The Marquise makes political decisions, comforts Louis as his subjects grow discontented with his extravagances and his government, and finds a way of feeding Louis' prodigious sexual appetites, all while looking after her own interests as well. Comparing herself to a duck, serene on the surface but paddling madly underneath, the Marquise wants nothing so much as to stay by Louis' side at Versailles and she will sacrifice much, including her own self-esteem, to do so. In her almost twenty years with Louis, she endures the humiliation of being replaced in his bed by younger and younger mistresses, including three, Rosalie, Morhise, and Marie-Anne, who threaten her position the most but she is never replaced in his heart and mind and she survives all attempts at her removal.

The novel is narrated by the Marquise de Pompadour herself and by the three young women who try, in turn, to supplant her. Letters from the Marquise to friends and enemies, highlighting not only the dangers she personally faces, her recognition of the rising malcontent of the citizenry, and her continuing feelings for Louis, but also the impressive agility of her mind, are scattered throughout the stories. The tale is carried forward by whichever mistress is in the ascendancy but each and every time, the Marquise triumphs over her rival. Christie has done a good job writing the four women as distinct, each very much her own character. Jeanne is the most complicated and complex character in the novel, both ruthless and kind, sympathetic and scheming. Louis comes off as childish, ruled by his lust, needy, and increasingly dissipated. This daughter of a butcher matures at Versailles far more than does her noble lover. Just as in the first book, there is a constant threat of plots and scheming but the political rumblings outside of the palace are becoming louder, more insistent, and more threatening than they were in the first book. And just as I wrote of that first in the trilogy: "The novel is detailed, full of scandal and intrigue, brimming with betrayal and duplicity." Fans of French history curious about the excesses that led to the French Revolution and the people who either couldn't see the prevailing sentiments or could do nothing at all to change them will find this a fascinating glimpse into not only the machinations within the court but the growing anger, unease, and hostility outside the palace gates.

For more information about Sally Christie, take a look at her website. Check out the book's Good Reads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Lisa from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.

A Fine Imitation by Amber Brock. The book is being released by Crown on May 3, 2016.

Amazon says this about the book: Set in the glamorous 1920s, A Fine Imitation is an intoxicating debut that sweeps readers into a privileged Manhattan socialite's restless life and the affair with a mysterious painter that upends her world, flashing back to her years at Vassar and the friendship that brought her to the brink of ruin.

Vera Bellington has beauty, pedigree, and a penthouse at The Angelus--the most coveted address on Park Avenue. But behind the sparkling social whirl, Vera is living a life of quiet desperation. Her days are an unbroken loop of empty, champagne-soaked socializing, while her nights are silent and cold, spent waiting alone in her cavernous apartment for a husband who seldom comes home.

Then Emil Hallan arrives at The Angelus to paint a mural above its glittering subterranean pool. The handsome French artist moves into the building, shrouds his work in secrecy, and piques Vera's curiosity, especially when the painter keeps dodging questions about his past. Is he the man he claims to be? Even as she finds herself increasingly drawn to Hallan's warmth and passion, Vera can't suppress her suspicions. After all, she has plenty of secrets, too--and some of them involve art forgers like her bold, artistically talented former friend, Bea, who years ago, at Vassar, brought Vera to the brink of catastrophe and social exile.

When the dangerous mysteries of Emil's past are revealed, Vera faces an impossible choice--whether to cling to her familiar world of privilege and propriety or to risk her future with the enigmatic man who has taken her heart. A Fine Imitation explores what happens when we realize that the life we've always led is not the life we want to have.

Review: Rare Objects by Kathleen Tessaro

Telling stories is a form of invention. Stretching or hiding the truth can also be in the service of invention and creating a new persona. We all tell stories every day, intentionally and unintentionally, making them up to create who we are publicly. Some people are quite skilled at it and go through several iterations of themselves to suit their situation until they finally settle in their own skin. The main character in Kathleen Tessaro's newest novel, Rare Objects, is such a person, changing like a chameleon until she finally looks to the core of herself, faces the stories hiding in her past, and becomes a reflection of what is most true about her.

Maeve Fanning is back in Boston and living with her mother after running away to New York City. There were many reasons she fled Boston, among others were that she wanted to escape the provincialism and expectations of those around her. New York was not the city she imagined and she found a hard life there, one derailed by random, sometimes dangerous men, bootleg gin, and one almost ended by a suicide attempt. After her mandatory stay at an asylum and now back at home, she is ready to look for a job but it's the midst of the Depression and so there are no jobs to be had, especially for a young, redheaded Irish woman. The only job that presents itself is one that she is not suited for, secretary and sales clerk at a very exclusive antique store. Changing her appearance, Anglicizing her name, and creating a fiction that carefully hides the truth of her less than genteel origins, she intrigues one of the shop's partners and lands the job. It is through the antiques store that she will come to renew her acquaintance with Diana Van der Laar, a wealthy heiress she met briefly during her stay in the asylum. And it it through Diana that she will meet the disturbing but captivating James, Diana's brother. Maeve, now know as May, is caught up in the glittering and false world of the Van der Laars, spending nights at speakeasies, dancing and drinking. She is seduced by the life and the people, sinking ever further into troubles she cannot stop.

May is inquisitive and intelligent. She's resourceful and full of promise, except when her desires, alcohol and the wrong men among them, sabotage her. She is understandably attracted to wealth and to all that it offers, even though she sees that the gilded cage that Diana lives in is no more freeing than the cage of poverty found in the tenements of the North Side. And she comes to understand everyone is just as busy inventing the self as she is, regardless of the price of the cage they live in. The themes of living the truth and the disparity of class would perhaps have been enough to drive the story but Tessaro also includes alcoholism, abortion, promiscuity, homosexuality as mental illness (as it was viewed at the time), the shady origins of the diamond industry in South Africa, religious intolerance, and adultery as well. While the story of May's tempestuous friendship with Diana and obsession with James is page turning, the inclusion of so many other issues cause all of them to be a bit short changed and feel like too many social issues in one story. The characters are all troubled in some way and the ominous tone and sense of foreboding don't ever lessen in the reading. The beginning of the novel, where an older Maeve looks backwards into her past when she steps into a room at the Museum of Fine Arts and sees a black agate ring, doesn't quite come full circle in the end, especially given the painful memories it stirs up. But despite these handful of weaknesses, it's a hard book to put down and the reader will be swept along in May's tale of self-invention, wealth, and deceit.

For more information about Kathleen Tessaro, take a look at her website or her Facebook author page. Check out the book's Good Reads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to the publisher and Trish from TLC Book Tours.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas
After the Dam by Amy Hassinger
Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
You Have Never Been Here by Mary Rickert
Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea
Rare Objects by Kathleen Tessaro
Umami by Laia Jufresa

Reviews posted this week:

When I'm Gone by Emily Bleeker

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

My Fat Dad by Dawn Lerman
The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman
My Confection by Lisa Kotin
Put a Ring on It by Beth Kendrick
One Perfect Summer by Paige Toon
The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley
Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
American Housewife by Helen Ellis
The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton
Closer All the Time by Jim Nichols
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Forsaken by Ross Howell Jr.
The Cosmopolitans by Sarah Schulman
The Spice Box Letters by Eve Makis
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
A Very Special Year by Thomas Montasser
Specimen by Irina Kovalyova
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Telling by Zoe Zolbrod
The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera
The Boy Who Speaks in Numbers by Mike Masilamani
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick
What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas
After the Dam by Amy Hassinger
Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrival:

Course Correction by Ginny Gilder came from Beacon Press and LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

A book about rowing, Title IX, and a world class athlete coming into her own? Oh yes! Sign me up please!!!

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.

Relativity by Antonia Hayes. The book is being released by Gallery Books on May 3, 2016.

Amazon says this about the book: A “beautifully written, heartbreaking” (S. J. Watson) debut novel about a gifted boy who discovers the truth about his past, his overprotective single mother who tries desperately to shield him from it, and the father he has never met who has unexpectedly returned.

Twelve-year-old Ethan Forsythe, an exceptionally talented boy obsessed with physics and astronomy, has been raised alone by his mother in Sydney, Australia. Claire, a former professional ballerina, has been a wonderful parent to Ethan, but he’s becoming increasingly curious about his father’s absence in his life. Claire is fiercely protective of her talented, vulnerable son—and of her own feelings. But when Ethan falls ill, tied to a tragic event that occurred during his infancy, her tightly-held world is split open.

Thousands of miles away on the western coast of Australia, Mark is trying to forget about the events that tore his family apart, but an unexpected call forces him to confront his past and return home. When Ethan secretly intercepts a letter from Mark to Claire, he unleashes long-suppressed forces that—like gravity—pull the three together again, testing the limits of love and forgiveness.

Told from the alternating points of view of Ethan and each of his parents, Relativity is a poetic and soul-searing exploration of unbreakable bonds, irreversible acts, the limits of science, and the magnitude of love.

Review: When I'm Gone by Emily Bleeker

When you die, all of your memories, and dreams for the future--for yourself and for those you love--go with you. Unless, that is, you write some of these things out, intending them to be read after your death. People who have done this are occasionally featured in the human interest segment of the news and we viewers think how poignant and heartbreaking but wonderful it is for the family to have these things in their loved ones' voices and handwriting after they are gone. But what if it isn't just memories and dreams in the letters left behind but also secrets, including one so large that it can only be told after one person's death? In Emily Bleeker's newest novel, When I'm Gone, there is such a secret, one slowly revealed through the letters that keep trickling in for the duration of this heartfelt and difficult tale.

Luke Richardson was married to the love of his life. He's known his wife Natalie since they were children and she was there for him during the worst day of his life. Losing her to cancer has gutted him and he has no idea how to go on and be the parent that their three children need. But he's all they have left and with the help of Natalie's best friend, Annie, and the young college student, Jessie, who Natalie wanted him to hire as a part time nanny/babysitter for the kids, he has a small network of people to help him get through. When he finds a blue envelope, addressed to him, in his wife's handwriting on the day he returns from her funeral, he feels as if he's got a piece of her back.

As the letters keep coming at random intervals, Luke holds them tight to his heart. They tell him things he knew and things he never knew. They relive the Richardsons' relationship and marriage, give him hints on how to help their children in their grief, and remind him to keep living and moving forward even when he doesn't feel ready. But they also start to raise questions in his mind about what he thought he knew and the Natalie he was sure shared everything with him. He is driven to revisit painful times and memories, to wonder who the people Natalie mentions so frequently are, and what secret she hints at is, revealing it so slowly and cautiously. As Luke grapples with his feelings over the uncertainty the letters inject into his memories of their life and love, Natalie's best friend Annie, who has been a rock for Luke, is also struggling. Luke's concern for her brings terrible memories of his childhood flooding back, memories of the terror and abuse he and his mother suffered at his father's hand. And finally, in his grief Luke and Natalie's oldest son Will finds a box of his mom's stuff with an envelope from a home for unwed teenagers postmarked around his birth and draws his own conclusions about what the missing letter must say, sending Luke on a mission to uncover the truth, for Will and for himself.

Using letters from Natalie allows her character to be fully fleshed out in her own voice rather than just as a reflection from those who love and miss her. This gives a depth to Luke and Natalie's marriage that might otherwise be missing and helps the reader understand why Luke feels so hurt and surprised when he discovers that he might not have known his wife as well as he thought. The conceit of the letters also gives the reader an understanding of the sorrow, anger, acceptance, regret, and the other ten billion emotions that run through a person living with terminal cancer and not just the grief and devastation of those left behind. Bleeker portrays her characters' emotions beautifully, weaving the horrible and the sublime, the mundane and the extraordinary together very well. The novel touches on so many bigger concepts: love, friendship, abuse, terminal illness, family, hope, and healing. Natalie's secret is eventually revealed and while some readers might question why she kept it so long, especially with such a loving husband, especially when telling could have alleviated suffering, it is ultimately a surprising and satisfying one. The end comes a bit quickly for all of the emotion leading up to it.

This is a story that will break your heart but one that will also leave you with the feeling that life can and does go on, even happily sometimes. A fast read about the safety net of people who hold your heart, loving, moving on, and embracing forgiveness, this is a book that celebrates life, no matter how messy or short, and readers coming to it for the first time will have a hard time not reading it all in one big gulp.

For more information about Emily Bleeker, take a look at her website, her Facebook author page or follow her on Twitter. Check out the book's Good Reads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to the publisher and Lisa from TLC Book Tours.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

When I'm Gone by Emily Bleeker
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Telling by Zoe Zolbrod
The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera
The Boy Who Speaks in Numbers by Mike Masilamani
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Reviews posted this week:

Reader, I Married Him edited by Tracy Chevalier

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

My Fat Dad by Dawn Lerman
The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman
My Confection by Lisa Kotin
Put a Ring on It by Beth Kendrick
One Perfect Summer by Paige Toon
The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley
Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
American Housewife by Helen Ellis
The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton
Closer All the Time by Jim Nichols
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Forsaken by Ross Howell Jr.
The Cosmopolitans by Sarah Schulman
The Spice Box Letters by Eve Makis
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
A Very Special Year by Thomas Montasser
Specimen by Irina Kovalyova
When I'm Gone by Emily Bleeker
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Telling by Zoe Zolbrod
The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera
The Boy Who Speaks in Numbers by Mike Masilamani
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrival:

Where We Fall by Rochelle B. Weinstein came from Lake Union and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

How can a book about betrayal, depression, heartbreak, and a trio of former friends not be completely enticing? Obvious answer, there's no way and this one has all of those things packed between its beautiful covers so it should be a fantastic read.

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday Salon: Spring Break

For the first time in a long time we stayed home for Spring Break. Having a kid in college whose breaks don't line up with his younger siblings' breaks complicates things a bit. It's mostly been a lazy reading filled span of time, punctuated here and there with a tennis match or two. I just finished up my stint as a preliminary judge for a writing contest, handing off a short list for the final round judge to read. That was a huge weight off my shoulders. And as an aside, let me tell anyone who enters writing contests to keep entering every one you can find (and afford). Conferring with my fellow first round judges just reinforces for me the fact that while there are some non-negotiable things to be found in worthy entries (chief among them being great writing, of course), different readers respond to different things. So winning stories deserve the accolades but many of the non-winners do as well. You can look at this as discouraging or as encouragement and use it to realize that even if you don't win, you wrote something worthy and of value.

Now I am buried under a stack of books to read for another wonderful initiative I have the honor of being a part of: National Reading Group Month Great Group Reads. I have so many books here that it almost feels like any time I am not reading, I am shirking my job. On the other hand, sometimes I need to take a walk in the neighborhood just to take a brain break so I come back and am looking at each submission with the same enthusiastic eyes. It's a tough balance. Time is limited and I have to weigh them all fairly but a fatigued reader is not ideal. And of course, I am still a busy mom first and foremost. So many books to read but my daughter needs a prom dress, my son has soccer practice and voice lessons. And tonight I have to take my daughter to a play she needs to see for class. I bought two tickets. The dilemma now is whether to go in with her or to take my youngest son (who has found his passion in acting) and have the two kids go in themselves while I sit in the lobby and read. This may be a game time decision and depend on how long the prom dress shopping lasts. If the decision was yours, what would you choose?

This week my book travels took me to a grieving family where letters from his recently deceased wife push a man towards the discovery of her long held secret. I watched as a woman agonized over who she should be with: her once missing through no fault of his own but reappeared husband or the fiance with whom she's rebuilt her heart and built a new life. I witnessed the painful decision to open up and talk about childhood sexual abuse. I traveled to a world in an epidemic where two feuding families, intimately connected, needed an intermediary to negotiate the fallout of a tragedy. And I witnessed the terrible absurdity of war and life in a displaced persons camp through a fable-like tale. Now I am in World War II London with those children who were not evacuated or were returned from the evacuation (intellectually challenged, physically challenged, or non-white), their wealthy young teacher, her supervisor/lover, and his roommate who is experiencing horrific things in war. Where did your reading travels take you this past week?